Solow files plans for 42-story tower on East SideProposed building is part of long-stalled $4 billion development project

August 28, 2015
Rich Bockmann

Reclusive billionaire developer Sheldon Solow filed plans to build a 42-story mixed-use tower adjacent to his long-vacant development site along the East River, records show.

The owner of one of the city’s most expensive office buildings, 9 West 57, and a portfolio of East Side rental towers, Solow submitted plans to build a 700,000-square-foot apartment tower
with 550 units at 685 First Avenue, according to an application filed with the Department of Buildings Friday.

The site, currently home to a parking lot, sits across First Avenue from a six-acre lot Solow bought from Con Edison in 2005 for $109 million.

Plans call for roughly 10,000 square feet of commercial space, including retail, and another 56,000 for manufacturing.

Solow owns a number of sites along the East River that had figured into his $4 billion redevelopment plan for the area. He’s sold off portions in recent years.

In 2010, Solow sold a site at the northeast corner of First Avenue and 35th Street to the city’s School Construction Authority for $33.25 million.

I would expect something similar to what Meier had presented as the master architect years ago for Mr. Solow before he sold off a couple of plots. Now that it appears he's only doing 1 tower, I hope for something more daring like its twin neighbors designed by SHoP.

While not a particularly tall tower, I'm still excited because I'm a big Richard Meier fan and he has built some of the best residential buildings in the city.

And it's a big tower, if not a soaring one. Over 800,000 square feet. And at 460 ft. it will at least have a neighborhood presence (unfortunately crazy local NIMBYs cut the height of all these planned towers on the former ConEd sites; otherwise these would have been all near-supertalls).

It's about time something happened here and hopefully it's a sign that the UN expansion and the former factory are about to see some activity!

--EDIT--
Is it just me or did a bunch of NY threads in the proposed Highrises & Supertall section go down the memory hole? If there's a reason I don't mind, but I'd really appreciate it if anyone could send me the addresses of the buildings in a PM or post them in Hunser's NYC supertalls thread.
Thanks in advance!

From the few details we’ve spotted on the approved permits, the massing of 685 First will essentially be a gigantic box. The ground floor will contain retail spaces along First Avenue, and the second floor will be packed with amenities such as a fitness center, pool, and library. Floors three through 14 will have 20 apartments apiece, floors 15-20 will have 16 apartments each, and thereafter will be an average of 10 units per floor up to the 42nd level.

Initially pushed forward through a joint venture between Fisher Brothers and Solow Realty & Development, the once nine-acre master plan was formerly home to an imposing Con Edison steam and electricity plant, which was one of the largest such complexes on the East Coast and served one-fourth of Manhattan. Solow purchased the site for $630 million in the mid ’90s and spent more than $100 million on environmental cleanups and demolishing the plant. An ambitious 40-firm architectural competition was held soon after, with finalists including top designers such as Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, and Christian de Portzamparc working in pairs alongside more pragmatic New York firms such as SLCE, Gary Handel & Associates, and Davis Brody Bond.

I would expect something similar to what Meier had presented as the master architect years ago for Mr. Solow before he sold off a couple of plots. Now that it appears he's only doing 1 tower, I hope for something more daring like its twin neighbors designed by SHoP.

Below, are his preliminary designs which had called for 4-5 towers:

unfortunately, this tower was significantly cut in height.

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click here too see hunser's list of the many supertall skyscrapers of New York City!

The new Meier-designed building will bear the address 685 First Ave. It will be 828,000 square feet, divided into about two-thirds rental and one-third condominium apartments. Construction work has begun and the site is now being excavated. Completion is scheduled for 2018.

By that time, the designer and builder might have a better sense of what they mean to do with the vast ditch between the new tower and FDR Drive.

Architectural firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) may still be tapped for the proposed commercial tower. There is also a planned public-private park of about 1 acre conceived by landscape architect James Corner, one of the creators of the High Line. But Mr. Solow says he’ll be waiting for this project to wrap up before making any final decisions.

Those would include, presumably, whether Mr. Meier would be going back to black for the other buildings. The architect says he likes the new look: 685’s tinted windows, perfectly clear from the interior, will pick up the changing daylight in a way not dissimilar from his beloved white.

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